


Into The Dark

by InkyIris



Series: Into the Dark [1]
Category: Danny Phantom, Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Danny does not join the Teen Titans, Domestic Violence, Friendship, Gen, How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, No Slash, Parent Death, Revised Version, Tags Contain Spoilers, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26140519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyIris/pseuds/InkyIris
Summary: Danny Fenton has lost his father, left his hometown, and is the prize in a battle he doesn't even know is being fought. With his mother distracted and his old friends far away, Danny struggles with who to trust in this world of changing loyalties. Unfortunately, those in charge aren't about to give him time to decide.The tags make this sound a lot worse than it is. It's not that heavy.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton & Garfield Logan, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters, Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Maddie Fenton/Vlad Masters, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Into the Dark [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157456
Comments: 12
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started posting this on 2012 on FFN. Figured it was time to fix it up and crosspost it (although I don't actually like this website). I'm editing and revising as a go along, so you can read the FFN version, but there will be differences with what's posted here. I started writing this as a high schooler long before it began to be posted and I've become a much better writer since. 
> 
> No TUE, Reign Storm, Maternal Instincts, My Brother's Keeper, Million Dollar Ghost, or Public Enemies. In other words, Maddie doesn't know Vlad's in love with her. Jazz doesn't know Danny's secret, Amity has no idea of the existence of Phantom, and Ultimate Enemy and Reign Storm didn't happen. This is around the beginning of the Fenton Menace (not really important, just giving you a sense of where it is, if you want to know. Danny is fifteen, Jazz is seventeen and graduated early.

_ The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." _

_ \- Martin Luther King Jr. _

* * *

Danny never knew what to do with his hands. They were always so excited, wanted to touch everything. They could get him into trouble when they grabbed something they shouldn't, like one of Daddy's 'experimince' or a cookie before dinner, but sometimes they could be helpful. Sometimes, Daddy told Danny that he needed a pair of five-year-old hands and, even though Danny was five and a quarter, he would help Daddy with 'experimince'. Sometimes, he could watch beakers of green 'exoplastic', as long as he didn't touch them because the 'exoplastic' is too hot when it boils (which Danny knew because he wasn't four), and make sure they didn't turn funny colors, like purple. It never did, but Danny was happy to help, anyway. Sometimes, his hands even got to stir stuff. It was so cool to have a Daddy who was a ghost hunter!

Then Danny was eight, and he watched his Daddy pour ectoplasm (only six year olds thought it was exoplastic, and Danny was eight) into beakers for experiments (not experimince) and sometimes he wanted to help. Sometimes he just wanted to go outside and play with Daddy, and sometimes Daddy would say yes. Other times, Daddy would yell at Danny and tell him to leave him alone and don't touch those! Danny would feel as big as his thumb and go upstairs. Then, when it was time for bed, Daddy would come take him outside and they would lie down and look at the stars. He would pull Danny next to him, close, and tell him about the stars and their constellations, which Danny couldn't always say right. Danny would feel so safe and he wouldn't feel thumb-sized anymore, and he would fall asleep, so happy.

When Danny was eleven, he didn't see Dad the same way. The man who he had seen as some superhero was embarrassing. His job was weird and not like anyone else's dad's jobs. Kids made fun of him for it. Danny didn't know why his Dad couldn't get a normal job – even Jazz wanted him to! Besides, believing in ghosts was for little kids. There were no such thing as ghosts and everyone but Danny's parents knew it. He didn't understand why they had to act so weird. He hated when kids laughed at him because of Dad. He stopped talking to Dad for a few days. It wasn't fair.

At fourteen, Dad built finished the ghost portal. It didn't work, of course, and was kind of creepy. It shouldn't be creepy – it was just useless junk – but it was. Dad had spent three years on it, and it was huge. Danny could fit in it, and Sam convinced him to go in. His hands got him into trouble again, hitting the 'on' switch as Danny stumbled. Dad had put the button on the inside. Excruciating pain flooded him and changed him. He couldn't tell Dad. He just couldn't see that disappointment in his eyes at the fact that his only son was one of the things he hated so much. He may have been frustrated by his Dad, but Danny never wanted to let him down. He still loved the man, after all.

Fifteen years old, everything was different. Danny still had his hands, still had his powers, but he was missing something much more important than that. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. How was he supposed to keep going when the world had stopped around him? It wasn't fair. He wanted Dad's stupid jokes and rambling lectures on ghosts. He wanted to watch Dad work on experiments, inventing and refining. He wanted Dad. He would even wear the stupid orange jumpsuit, if Dad was there. He would tell Dad his secret and help him go after evil ghosts and ask his advice about girls. He would do anything. He just wanted Dad. Unfortunately, Dad was the one thing he wanted that he couldn't have.

* * *

Of course it was raining. The droplets pounded softly on the window panes of his bedroom, a simple, steady cadence. It wasn't loud enough to muffle the voices downstairs, even though he wished it would. He was tired of quiet condolences and whispered gossip. He swallowed, or tried to, around the lump in his throat. He wasn't going to cry. He had to be strong for everyone else today. Sure he'd escaped up to his bedroom for a few minutes, but that wasn't as bad as crying.

Besides, it wasn't like anyone was missing him downstairs. Mom hadn't looked at him for three days. He'd never hated looking like Dad this much. He wouldn't have thought the resemblance was that strong, but he hasn't exactly been studying himself in the mirror. He could stay in his room a few minutes longer. When he finally went back downstairs, he knew what would happen. He'd walk into the living room with Jazz and his friends and so many people and see Mom and Vlad. See Mom avoiding looking straight at him and Vlad looking at him sympathetically as he tried to get Mom to turn to Danny, to see  _ him _ . To  _ look _ at him. He even hated that it was Vlad trying to help. 

No, he was just going to stay here, with the rain pounding harder and overwhelming his senses. Thunder rolled, quieted by the glass in the window, too quiet to drown out another person whispering how sorry they were for 'their loss'. They all danced around what happened to the Fenton's faces, then turned around and gossiped all about it to each other. Danny could hear  _ every word _ .

Crossing the room, he threw his window open, a gust of wind hitting him in the face. The rain poured inside, dripping onto the carpet. He leaned out, feeling the rain soak his face and hair. He still wouldn't cry. He wasn't. It was raindrops. It was. It was, he convinced himself as his hands gripped the sill and his arms shook. He wasn't crying. Not for anything. After all, he had never seen Dad cry. 

Slowly, Danny sank to his knees and rested his head against the wall. No, he'd never seen Dad cry, had he? Dad laughed, Dad talked, Dad yelled, but he never cried. Danny clenched the windowsill as he heard a knock on the door. He didn't answer.

"Danny?" Sam's voice came through the wood. "Danny, can we come in?"

"Hey, man," Tucker's voice joined the goth's, "You all right?"

_ No _ . He didn't say.  _ My dad died, do you think I'm alright? _ He didn't say that either.

After a moment of silence, interrupted only by the rain, the doorknob slowly turned. The door slowly creaked open, and two sets of footsteps padded across the floor. He could hear their clothes rustle as they crouched down, Tucker squatting on one side with Sam kneeling on the other. Danny didn't turn to face them, didn't say anything. Tucker settled into a seat on the carpet and Sam sighed sadly, but didn't say another word. Danny didn't know how long they all sat there before Sam pushed herself to her feet and closed the window, stopping the water that soaked Danny's hair and clothes. In the sudden almost silence, Danny swallowed. "I can't believe he's gone."

The words escaped his mouth, and, suddenly, he couldn't stop talking. "It's not right. He shouldn't be gone. He can't be gone! I can't drive and I don't know how to fish and he just left! He left me! He's gone, he left, and now I'm all alone. What am I supposed to do now?" He'd left Danny. Maybe it hadn't been on purpose, but they didn't change the facts. And now stupid  _ Vlad _ was there and wasn't acting like he was supposed to. He shouldn't be nice or normal or not creepy. He should hit on Mom and try to recruit Danny and not be so decent! "He – this – it shouldn't be like this! Everything is different and it's all wrong!" Danny pulled in a shaky breath, his voice quieting. "It's all my fault. I should have been there. I should have been there to help him or something, but I was stupid." He'd gone out his window that night because his ghost sense had gone off and he shouldn't have left and if he'd been there he could have  _ helped _ Dad. "I didn't save him! Now, he's gone and there's no one around that – nobody to – I'm – Augh!" The wordless cry expressed everything he couldn't say, couldn't put into words. He barely registered Sam and Tucker's arms around him and their overlapping voices.

"C'mon, man, that's not true-" Tucker reassured.

Sam shook her head, rubbing his arm. "Oh, Danny, listen-" 

He tuned them both out. They didn't know. How could they? They hadn't been there. Nobody had but Dad and some guy with a gun looking to steal their TV. Some guy Danny might have stopped, if he hadn't been chasing Youngblood like an  _ idiot _ .

He stared at the water dripping off of the cuff of his button up onto the already soaked carpet. The knees of his black dress slacks were sopping wet from where they pressed into the carpet. He shivered slightly. It was a little surprising, considering he didn't get cold easily. His shivering increased in severity, the shuddering rattling his teeth and making his eyes water. He dragged in breaths and felt his friends' arms tighten around him. After a few seconds, he pushed himself up, Sam and Tucker's arms falling away, and turned towards the door.

"I'm going to dry off. I'll see you guys downstairs." Danny's voice was emotionless and flat. After a moment, he heard a reply.

"Danny… we're here for you."

Swallowing again, Danny walked out of the room. Grabbing a towel out of the closet in the bathroom, he toweled off his hair before looking at himself in the long mirror on the back of the door. His collar and the tops of his shoulders were soaked, along with his sleeves from the cuffs to halfway between the elbows and shoulders. He could feel the shirt damp on his back from where the water had dripped down his neck. Dark patches spread over his knees, but the rest of his shirt and pants were fine. He just needed his suit jacket and he could cover the wet spots; the ones on his shirt, anyway. No one would be looking at his knees. Sighing, Danny tossed his towel in the hamper and exited the bathroom, avoiding meeting blue eyes that reminded him of Dad.

Snagging his jacket from his now empty bedroom on the way, Danny headed down the stairs and back to the wake.

* * *

Danny had originally been very opposed to Vlad's presence. He had come home, arms loaded down with shopping bags, to see an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Assuming it was a new detective, Danny just continued to the door. Jazz had been sitting in the kitchen, looking through a Harvard booklet. He'd put the bags down and had started to put the stuff contained inside away, before asking Jazz who the car out front belonged to. Jazz had barely glanced at him. "Remember Mom and… and Dad's old college friend, Vlad Masters?"

Danny'd stiffened. The car had been nice, he could tell that. If it was Vlad's… Almost robotically, Danny had turned towards the table. "Jazz, where is he?" His sister's eyes kept skimming the information in the packet and it was all he could do not to incinerate the papers with a careful ectoblast. He raised his voice. "Jazz!"

Starting, she looked up at him. "Danny! What is it?" Her face was lined with concern containing the slightest edge of annoyance. Danny took a breath to calm himself down. Jazz didn't deserve his anger – she didn't know why he was so opposed to Vlad being at their house.

"Where's Vlad?" The tone of his voice was tight and controlled. He was going to keep his temper. Vlad just better not be causing any problems for his mom, because she didn't need anything else to get screwed up. If he was… Stronger than Danny or not, Vlad was going out of his house and he was not coming back. Mom didn't need some rich, lonely jerk hitting on her right after Dad… died. Danny's fury flared. "Jazz?"

She scrutinized him. "Danny, what is it?" He let out a breath. Vlad was probably with Mom right now. Eyes narrowing, the teen started towards the stairs. "Danny!" Jazz leapt in front of him as he passed the table. "Calm down!"

Calm. She wanted him to be  _ calm _ . "Why did you let him in here?" She was the only one who would've answered the door and she would've made the decision to let him in. Why in the world would she do that? Didn't she see Vlad last time? When they went to the reunion? Sure, she didn't know that he was Plasmius, but she saw him flirting with Mom. Didn't she think it odd or suspicious or convenient for him to show up now? Why did she let him in!? More agitated by the second, Danny made to move around her, but Jazz cut him off again.

"Danny, they're  _ friends _ ! Maybe Mr. Masters can help her!" Danny almost laughed. Since when had Vlad been interested in helping anyone but himself? From what Danny knew of the man, Vlad was selfish and self-serving, only doing things and using his powers to get ahead. If Vlad had had his way, Dad would have died months ago, the day of the college reunion. Why should he let Vlad spend another moment within fifty miles of Mom? 

Shaking his head, he tried to move around his sister. "Help her? Jazz, last time Vlad was around Mom, he was hitting on her. I don't think she needs that kind of  _ help _ right now." Danny spat the last words. He knew he was being crueler than necessary to Jazz, but he was so  _ angry _ . Vlad shouldn't be here, especially not with Mom, in her room. There was no where else they could be since Mom hadn't left her room since she gotten back from the police station.

"Danny, stop! Mom doesn't need you barreling up there and charging in right now, either! I don't think Mr. Masters would do something like that, Danny. Have some trust." 

_ Trust _ ? He did  _ trust _ Vlad. Right up until the moment he captured Danny and admitted to trying to kill Dad so he could have Mom. The man wasn't worth the time. 

"Leave them alone, Danny!" Jazmine trusted Vlad. Vlad didn't  _ deserve _ it.

"How long has he been here?" He asked, as the ominous thought occurred to him. How long had he been up there, alone with Mom, poisoning her mind and twisting words and coming off as everything he wasn't, as something other than dirty, lying scum? Danny had been gone for nearly an hour at the store. What if Vlad had gotten here just after Danny left? What had he been doing to Mom? Closing his eyes, Danny fought to keep them blue and utterly normal. The last thing Mom and Jazz needed now was for Danny to show them that he wasn't totally human, that half of him was something they – Mom. Something Mom hunted. They didn't need that right now, any more than he did. If only Danny had been better, the son that they wanted, that they deserved, everything would be completely and totally different. Dad would be here and he wouldn't be dealing with  _ Vlad _ .

"Danny," Jazz continued to say something appeasing, but he tuned her out. If she wasn't going to move, fine. He was getting over to the stairs, one way or another. He could jump over the table, slide over the counter, or duck past her around her chair… The table sounded like the best option, the quickest. Without another word, he turned towards it, only to stop in his tracks as his eyes fell upon the bottom of the stairs, barely visible outside the doorway, and the slippers that were descending onto the carpeted floor of the living room. He took a step forwards, barely noticing Jazz moving to mirror him. Was it really Mom? Had Vlad really gotten her to get up, out of bed?

"Mom?" On the edge of consciousness, he noted the abrupt end of Jazz's monologue as she, too, turned to the doorway. Mom stepped through it, her smile tired and worn, but it was there. Her hair was combed and she had a robe wrapped around her pajamas that hung loosely on her. Focusing on Jazz, Mom smiled, then glanced towards Danny – for a split second before she shifted her eyes to a spot barely to the right of Danny's ear, eyes moistening. Danny frowned slightly, before putting it to the fact that she was tired. Maybe she was having a hard time focusing. He wasn't sure how it was possible to lay in bed for three days and be tired, but she seemed exhausted.

The teen took a step forward before noticing another pair of footwear coming down the stairs, fancy, black, dress shoes. He swallowed. Vlad. The man was standing behind Mom, looking genuinely worried. A moment ago, Danny had been ready to go off on the older man, throw him out and expose him, but now the teen was unsure what to do.

Mom was up though. She was up, and she looked better than she had in days. At that thought, Danny wanted to worship Vlad with gratitude. Mom wasn't crying. She was even smiling. Maybe Vlad could deserve a chance. Maybe he wasn't all bad. If he was there for Mom, if he was helping her… maybe he was okay. Maybe Dad's death had changed him as much as it had changed the Fentons. Maybe… maybe Vlad was okay. With a deep breath, Danny steeled himself to accept Vlad's help for as long as the man behaved. If he did one thing wrong, though, Danny wouldn't hold back.

Vlad's eyes met Danny's own, careful but full of honest concern. After a moment, Danny nodded. Vlad inclined his head, and, breaking eye contact, Danny moved forward to hug Mom. He ignored the way she hesitated before hugging him back, and pretended the slight stiffness in her embrace was from being still for the better part of three days. That was it. It was. It had to be.

* * *

Goosebumps ran down Danny's arms as he exhaled mist and he shuddered, watching as Sam and Tucker showed no sign of chill. He knew what that meant. His friends leapt to their feet, alarmed, but Danny stayed sitting. It wasn't like the ghosts usually caused that much real,  _ harmful _ trouble, compared to other dangers. If whoever the ghost was started hurting people, Danny would step in. Until then, it would be safer if he stayed with his friends. Somebody could try and mug them or something. He'd been so focused on ghosts since he'd gotten his powers, he'd forgotten how dangerous  _ people _ could be. He wasn't going to let anyone else down because he had been playing 'ghost hunter' with his powers.

"Danny! Come on!" Sam turned to him angrily. "Aren't you done with this yet? That could be Skulker or somebody else dangerous! You need to face your responsibilities!" 

"Sam-" Tucker interrupted, but the words had already been said and the damage done.

Eyes flashing green, Danny pushed himself off of the park bench, the anger that constantly ran under the surface bubbling up. How dare she? "What? Done with what? Done with not endangering people for my own stupid, exciting adventures? Done with actually doing the right thing for once in my life? Done with making sure no one else gets killed because of me? No. I'm not. And I don't have a  _ responsibility _ to do that. No one gave one to me, we just decided on our own. Did you ever think, for one minute, that this is  _ wrong _ or unnatural? Or that the reason there are only two people like this is because it's  _ not supposed to happen _ ? Or do you just think about how cool it is to be half ghost? Because you know what Sam? This really kinda _ sucks _ . You know what sucks worse? Knowing that I could have used these powers to change things, but I didn't. I wasn't there. I was chasing something that ended up not hurting anyone. I'm-" he broke off shaking his head. For the past month, everyone had told him that he couldn't blame himself and there was nothing he could have done. They had  _ no idea _ .

"Danny-"

He cut Sam off, turning away. "Yeah, I'm going home. I think Mom wanted me home for dinner." She didn't. She was helping Jazz pack for Harvard. 

"Dude-"

"Sorry, Tuck. I'm already late." He didn't break his stride, hands in tight fists in his pockets.

They didn't follow him.

Another burst of frigid air came from his mouth and he immediately stopped. He wasn't trying to run right into it. Spinning, he halted as he came face to face with the ghost. He felt his eyes glow green. 

It was Youngblood. The young ghost shot a ray at Danny's feet, and Danny took a step back. It looked like the kid had finally escaped from the Ghost Zone although it didn't seem like his skeletal sidekick had escaped with him, as the creature was nowhere in sight. The boy was dressed differently than he had been when Danny last saw him over a month ago. Chaps and boots replaced breeches and a peg leg, and a fringed shirt with a neckerchief was where the pirate's coat had been. He also now had both hands and a cowboy hat. Last time Danny had seen him was the night that Dad died.

He wasn't going to think about that. Deliberately, he turned away from the child ghost. There was no possible way for this to end well.

"Howdy, y'all!" He clenched his teeth at the young ghost's taunting tone. He wasn't fighting Youngblood again. The ghost was just messing with him, not hurting anybody. He just needed to walk away. That's what he should do. That's what he  _ needed _ to do. Closing his eyes, he let out a tight breath. When he opened his eyes a second later, it was to find that Youngblood had swooped in front of him. Danny scowled. The young ghost poked him in the chest, hard.

"Come on! What are you doing?" The young ghost's face was confused as he squinted at Danny, and poked him again. "Ain't there supposed to be a high noon, shoot 'em up showdown?"

Danny stiffened, the blood leaving his face. Was Youngblood doing this on purpose? There was no way he knew about what happened to Dad, right? 

Or did he?

Either way, the ghost was choosing the right words to make Danny want to blast the mouth right off of the kid's face. Restraining himself forcibly, though it was harder with every second, Danny took a few more breaths through his nose and stepped back. Turning again, he began to walk away. He didn't want to let his anger get the better of him. This was a battle he shouldn't fight, even if he wanted to. He wanted to – he didn't want to think about what he wanted to do.

In a second, Youngblood was right in his face, leaning forwards until his nose nearly touched Danny's. The kid scowled and poked him in the chest. Hard. "What? You yellow bellied coward! Running home to your mommy and daddy?"

He saw red.

Without another thought, Danny transformed. Launching himself at the other ghost, he saw the uncertainty flicker on the spectre's face for a split second before Danny barreled into him. They flew for several feet before slamming into the ground. Panic was in Youngblood's eyes as he turned himself intangible, but Danny just held on, turning intangible as well. After a second, the young cowboy-dressed ghost slipped out of the halfa's grip and flew upwards. Danny was faster. He smashed into the ghost from the side. They tumbled for a moment before hitting the ground once more, Youngblood pinned beneath Danny. Pain ripped through the teen as he pulled back a fist lit with ectoplasm and threw it into the younger ghost, not aiming, nor caring where the blast hit. He hit the boy again, then again.

How dare he? How dare he? What was his problem? Did he think it was funny that Dad was dead? The next blow was harder. Was he seriously taunting Danny about his failure!? What was his  _ problem _ ? That stupid  _ idiot _ ! What in the world did he think he was doing? Oh, yeah, let's  _ laugh _ at the fact that your dad is  _ dead _ ? Danny hated him! That little, stupid, know-it-all jerk! What was his problem?! What, since he was already dead, he thought that people dying, Dad dying was  _ funny _ ?! Did the kid have some sort of issue with sadism, or was he part of the 'Let's Make Life  _ Miserable _ For Danny!" club, like every single other  _ stupid _ ghost in this  _ stupid _ town was? Did it hate Danny, or Dad, or did it just have some sort of death wish? 

Heedless of what were now whimpers from the young ghost, Danny continued pounding into it. Again and again, his ectoplasm-enhanced fists tore into Youngblood until the kid's begging slowly began penetrating Danny's haze.

"Please, stop, please, please, please, please, please, stop! Please, stop! Stop it, please!" Danny paused, first drawn back to hit the boy again. "I'll do anything, please!"

"Anything?" Another wave of fury and pain, despair, rocked Danny. "Anything?! It's too late for that. It's too late, because he's already dead! You want to do something?!" Danny roared, "Bring him back!" The ectoplasm flickered over Danny's sore, prepared fist.

"I can help you, please!" The terrified ghost pleaded, his voice rocketing to a higher pitch at the end. What was Danny  _ doing _ ?

"What?" He shook his head, voice hitching, "Don't lie to me! You can't help me, or him. You can't bring him back!" He dropped his arm to the ground, releasing the fist. This was wrong.

"Please, I know who can!" The kid could barely speak through swollen lips, "I can help you, please, I can!" He sniffed wetly as tears mixed with ectoplasm streaked his face. "Please, listen to me!"

Danny stayed still, breathing heavily. Shudders wracked his body. What if Youngblood was right? He didn't think the ghost was lying, not now. Guilt ran through the teen, pooling in the pit of his stomach. The ghost's lips were swollen and split and he couldn't open one eye. Burns from the flaming ectoplasm and bruises decorated his face, and Danny averted his eyes. He didn't realize…

He swallowed and got to his feet, off of the kid. Still looking away, Danny rubbed away the traces of wet that he hadn't realized soaked his own cheeks, trailing in streams from his eyes. It was from the wind, he was sure. He hadn't been crying. Taking in a deep, shuddering breath, the teen glanced back at Youngblood. The boy was still lying there. Danny hadn't noticed it before, full of anger and hatred and hurt, but Youngblood was paler than the halfa had ever seen him, a shade away from invisible. As he stood there and watched, Youngblood flickered. Fear bolted through Danny. What if he  _ had _ killed the younger ghost? Was it even possible? Could ghosts die again? 

The kid still didn't move and a bitter, sour taste slipped into the back of Danny's mouth. His stomach rolled and he gagged. He'd done that to Youngblood. He'd hurt him like that. He was supposed to help people, not…  _ that _ .

The streets were empty and soundless around them. The overcast sky let loose a flash of lightning, followed minutes later by a crack of thunder. 

Danny swallowed, shamefaced, as, with some effort, Youngblood floated up into the air. The childlike ghost was definitely looking the worse for the wear. Danny was fifteen, he should know how to control himself. He should know better than to go crazy.

For a long time, neither ghost spoke. Finally, Youngblood opened his mouth. "Clockwork."

"What?"

Youngblood didn't look at him. "Clockwork is the name of the ghost. He might be able to fix it "

Danny opened his mouth to reply with a strangled, "Okay."

His eyes caught sight of the pavement where Youngblood had been lying. It was actually cracked and indented. Green ectoplasm stained the sidewalk in several places, pooling most severely in the deepest depression. The breath caught in Danny's throat and his stomach churned as he realized that that dent was where Youngblood's head had been. Danny bent over, clutching his stomach and gagged again, dry heaving. He would never hurt someone like that again, Danny decided firmly.

The ghost watched him silently, bobbing in the air more than floating, and Danny fought against the nausea. He had to look strong in front of the ghost.

He cleared his throat. "Clockwork?"

We'll have to go into the Ghost Zone." The boy's voice was soft and Youngblood still didn't meet the teen's eyes. Danny swallowed. He hadn't thought of the fact that they might need to go into the Ghost Zone. To go into the Ghost Zone, they would need to go down into his parent's lab. Danny hadn't been down there – nobody had been down there – since Dad had died. He also didn't like the idea of bringing Youngblood into his home, where Mom and Jazz were. Did he really have a choice though?

"…Alright." Danny turned towards home. "This way."

Neither spoke as they flew towards the Ops Center. It was almost a shock when he reached his home, the sudden realization of his surroundings jarring him out of his daze. Danny didn't remember most of the journey. He hovered for a moment, gaze angled upwards.

"Are we going or not?"

Well, at least Danny hadn't hurt the kid's attitude. "Yeah." The teen dived through the house intangibly, stopping just before he hit the floor of the lab. The sterile white tile of stared up at him. Danny slowly straightened until he was floating completely upright. The lab, covered with a fine layer of dust, spread around him, Danny turned to the closed Portal. Youngblood floated down to stop next to him, and glided forward until he was a meter from the portal. He turned to look at Danny, scowling.

With a deep breath, Danny activated the portal and the ghosts floated through.


	2. Chapter 2

The green expanse of the Ghost Zone opened up before them, cold and unearthly. There was silence today in the Zone. No ghosts floated around the portal entrance and Danny followed Youngblood, unhindered. The young ghost led Danny past doors and domains. Danny remained on his guard as he passed Skulker's island and kept an eye out for Walker. He didn't need trouble. Luckily, neither ghost seemed to be around today. After travelling for a few minutes, Youngblood stopped, Danny barely managing to avoid running into the young ghost. Looking ahead, the teen saw a large tower, decorated with clocks. He glanced to the other ghost.

Youngblood nodded to the building. "That's Clockwork's lair." Danny blinked and looked again at the tower. It was a little intimidating, but Danny would risk it. If this ghost could bring Dad back, it was worth anything.

Danny turned to thank Youngblood, but the ghost had already disappeared. The teen swallowed and returned his gaze to the tower.

Carefully, the teen opened the heavy door at the base of the tower and slipped through. It thudded closed behind him, echoing in the huge space. The room he'd entered was full of gears and was surrounded by screens. He stepped in further, taking a better look at the screens. They each showed a different scene of people and events that Danny didn't recognize. As he came into the center of the room, the screens all changed. 

Eyes widening, Danny took in the new scenes – each of them featuring him. In one, the teen was in ghost form and leaning around a building corner. As Danny watched, the Danny in the scene shot an ectoblast towards a strange group – one of them green, one part robot, and the other three in strange outfits. The screen Danny ducked back around the corner and fled. The scene replayed and Danny looked to another one. In this screen, Danny was laying, bruised and bloody, on a white tile floor. He struggled to rise, but his arms gave out. Finally, the onscreen Danny pushed himself to his feet – only to be yanked forward, out of view of the screen. Danny turned around to see another screen – Danny strapped to a metal table, writhing and screaming. The teen shuddered and turned his head away to see himself, again in ghost form, talking pleasantly with one of the boys he had thrown an ectoblast in the other screen. The screen beside it showed Danny again, this time looking a little… off. He was jumpy and almost twitching. His eyes looked… blank. Danny, standing in the middle of the screens took a step back at the emptiness in the gaze – what were these things!? He turned to another screen, this one seeming actually not so bad. Onscreen Danny was laughing, leaning over to playfully shove… somebody. The screens all changed to a swirling green, like the Ghost Zone's expanse, before Danny could see the other person.

"It is not wise to see possibilities of the future."

The voice came from behind Danny, deep and ageless, and the teen spun around. Across the room, a ghost floated, old and hunched. He held a staff in one hand and had some sort of clock around his neck. Danny swallowed and eyed the ghost. Was this Clockwork? The other ghost floated closer and Danny fought the urge to take a step back, sudden nervousness welling up inside him. The ghost passed Danny and Danny stood facing the opposite direction for a second, gathering up his determination, before facing the other ghost-

The other ghost that was no longer there. In the old ghost's place hovered a tall, strong-looking ghost. It had the same hood, medallion, and staff, but stood straighter and unwrinkled. It stared apathetically at Danny, who was looking for words.

"Where– Who–?" Danny started, but was cut off.

"Who am I?" This ghost had the same voice as the other one, steady and knowing. "I am Clockwork, the ghost of Time."

Danny's eyes widened. The ghost of Time? Did that mean… Danny opened his mouth to ask Clockwork a question, but was cut off before he could say the first word.

"Yes, being the ghost of Time does mean I can control it." Before the teen's eyes, the man shifted to a child. When the kid spoke, though, he had the same ageless voice. "Past, present, and future."

"Please, I need your help." Danny didn't know how to ask, so he just blurted out his request, "I need you to help me fix something in the past. It shouldn't've happened, and I need to change it. Please, can you help me?"

The ghost simply stared at the teen. Danny felt his heart sink. This wasn't going how he wanted it to. The other ghost was supposed to agree, to tell him that he could, that it was possible!

"You can do that, right?" Danny heard the desperation in his own voice, but he didn't really care.

Clockwork just _looked_ at him. Finally, he shifted again and responded, "I don't meddle in the past."

Clockwork wasn't going to help him? He _had_ to! He had to get Dad back! "No, you don't understand! I _have_ to go back! I have to fix it! It can't be this way, it's not _supposed_ to be this way, he needs to be here, and I need to fix this! Please, he's my Dad!" Danny's breath was fast and shallow. "Please, you have to help me!"

The other ghost turned his back. "I will not change the past."

"You won't?" Danny repeated numbly.

Clockwork shifted again, back into an old man. "You don't know the consequences that change could bring about."

" _I don't care_!" Danny shook his head. "I don't care what could happen! I just want Dad back!" The teen blinked furiously as his vision blurred slightly. 

After a moment of silence, the boy's shoulders slumped. 

"Fine." He could hear the bitterness in his tone. He was so tired. "Fine." Danny stepped back and turned, leaving without another word.

* * *

"Oh, Danny honey, I didn't hear you come in."

Danny turned to see Mom standing in the kitchen doorway. He put the lid back on the orange juice and put it back in the fridge. "Sorry."

She still didn't quite meet his eyes. "I wanted to talk to you, sweetheart. There's not an easy way to put this." She sighed. "I think we should move."

Danny froze, the glass of juice halfway to his lips. "Move?"

"Yes. I think it's too hard to stay here, after… what happened."

Danny wanted to argue. He'd grown up in this house! All the best memories with Dad were here!

But there was still a slightly discolored spot on the living room carpet, and the carpet was stiff between the couch and the stairs to the lab. Danny wasn't sure if it was his imagination or if it really was permanently stained, but he knew he'd never be able to relax in there again. Maybe if they moved, Mom would get better. Maybe Danny would stop having nightmares. Slowly, he nodded. "Okay. Where to?"

Mom smiled briefly. "Well, one summer when I was in college, I interned at a laboratory on the west coast, in Jump City. I was thinking-"

"Wait, you want to move to _California_? We don't know anyone in California, and all my friends are here!" The juice sloshed as Danny gestured. "We can't move to California!"

"It's a nice city, Danny. I think a fresh start would be good for us." Her smile was fading.

"Yeah, a fresh start where we don't know anyone! School sucks when I do have friends! First we lose Dad, now Jazz is leaving, and then you want to take away literally _everybody else_ in my life!"

Danny had never seen the _look_ on Mom's face before. Her eyes were wide and she was pale, looking directly at him for the first time in too long. What has he said to make her look - oh. 

_Oh_.

"Oh honey, I-"

"Nevermind." Danny interrupted Mom, turning away. "It's fine. California." He swallowed. "Cool."

"Danny, sweetheart, we don't have to move to California."

"No Mom, it's really fine. I hate my school anyway." At least Dash wouldn't be in California. Because _nobody he knew_ would be in California. "Can't wait."

* * *

Jazz thought he needed to see a counselor, which was completely dumb. He was fine, he didn't need to talk to anyone about his _feelings_. Sure, losing Dad and everything that had happened had been awful, but that didn't make him crazy. He didn't need somebody analyzing him. Jazz did that enough.

She'd tried to talk to him about it basically every day as the time for her to fly to Massachusetts came closer. She wouldn't be able to move into the dorms so soon, but she had found some short term housing for the few weeks until she could. She wanted to have some time to get familiar with the campus, the town, and especially the library.

One morning when Jazz pulled out pamphlets for him, he couldn't take it anymore without exploding and had left the house without saying a word to her. He slammed the door behind him and sagged against it for a moment. Usually Mom intervened when his sister started pestering him, but she was at the bank. Apparently, Dad had had a secret lockbox at the bank he hadn't told Mom about. She'd gone to get the contents and Vlad had gone with her, for moral support or something. 

Danny really didn't know what to think about Vlad anymore. He'd been with Mom almost constantly outside of work since Dad died, but he'd acted really weird around her. There was no flirting, or gloating, or _anything_. He'd just been nice. He'd helped Mom plan the funeral and had looked for housing in California for her and Danny when the man had gone on a business trip out there. As far as Danny had heard, when Mom told Vlad they were moving out of town, he hadn't even tried to convince her to move to Wisconsin with him. He was just… being a friend. 

Danny was glad Vlad was acting like that, but that didn't mean it wasn't super weird. After everything that had happened at the college reunion, Danny had thought…

It didn't matter now what he'd expected. He found an empty alley to transform in and was soon flying invisibly. He was going to limit the use of his powers to prioritize his real life responsibilities, but that didn't mean he couldn't go flying once in a while. It helped clear his head - and it was fun.

He wasn't sure how long he spent in the air, but it was definitely over an hour. Eventually, he landed in another alley a few streets down from his house and transformed behind a dumpster - ew - since there were more people around at this time of day. He quickly ducked out from behind the dumpster and stood for a minute, watching the people on the street. Cars zoomed past occasionally and a mother and a young boy were walking across the street. Everyone going on with their normal lives, like Danny wished he was. If only Clockwork hadn't said no.

"I didn't expect to find you hiding in an alley." 

Was the person talking to him? He turned to see an unfamiliar girl facing him, a little shorter than he was but around his age. She stood partly in shadow, so he couldn't see her face very well, but it looked like she had beige skin with very short, dark hair.

"Hi," Danny replied, a little blankly. She had to be talking to him - there was no one else he could see. There was something off about this girl and the way she was acting, though. It wasn't just the fact that she was in an alley, talking to Danny, but something in her voice and the way she shifted her weight slightly towards him. She stood, feet planted shoulder width apart and knees bent. Danny felt foreboding flood through him. He should go. He took a slight step backwards.

"Don't go yet," Danny stopped, the idea that maybe he should listen to her nudging at his thoughts. "We aren't finished."

This was weird, but weird didn't always mean _bad_. He was wondering what she was doing here. She was really pretty too. He took half a step forward. It wouldn't hurt to stay and find out what she wanted.

"Actually," The voice was familiarly smooth and cultured, coming from the deeper shadows beneath the fire escape on the right, "You are." Danny's head snapped to the side as Vlad Plasmius stepped into view, the shadows in the alley seeming to become darker as he appeared. His eyes were hard and his voice was stern. What was Plasmius even doing here, and why was he transformed? Hadn't Vlad just been with Mom? Had something happened, or was this Vlad showing his true colors and attaching Danny when he couldn't transform without giving away his secret?

Danny hoped it wasn't Vlad showing true colors.

Plasmius… wasn't even looking at Danny. His eyes were firmly on the girl, who was backing up. Plasmius lifted his chin slightly, almost like a challenge, and the girl let out a barely audible breath. She looked over to Danny once more, but turned and walked quickly out of the alley as Plasmius took another deliberate step in her direction. They were quiet for a moment, then dark rings appeared around Plasmius's waist, changing him into Vlad.

The man turned to Danny, tired lines beneath his eyes. "Daniel-"

"What was _that_ about?" Danny interrupted, crossing his arms. Danny had more questions, but the teen held them back. One at a time would work better then all of them at once. That way, Vlad wouldn't be able to only answer the questions he felt like answering.

"Daniel, calm down." Vlad's tone was placating and disapproving, only making Danny bristle. Yeah, Plasmius appears out of nowhere and chases away some random girl and _Danny's_ the unreasonable one.

"Who was that, and what was that about?" Danny glared at the older man, daring him to evade the questions. Instead, the halfa shrugged, frowning thoughtfully.

"I don't know exactly who she was, Daniel. But, trust me," His tone darkened as he stared down the alleyway, "Her intentions towards you were not benign." In the shadows, Danny could see the man's eyes gleaming red. It chilled Danny, even directed at someone other than him. 

"How do you know? She just said hi." 

Vlad was looking down the alley in the direction the girl had left again. "Her eyes were glowing. Her fingers were too, as she was reaching for you."

"Glowing? Nothing was glowing." He searched his mind. Nothing had been glowing. Not anything that he had noticed, anyway. Well, the alley had gotten darker when Vlad stepped out, but that was just… it wasn't… real. It had just been a trick of his mind, or a trick of the light. Or maybe the trick of the light _had_ been light going away. "And she wasn't reaching for me."

Vlad turned to look at him, a concerned frown on his face. "Daniel, she was about to grab your arm before I interrupted her grasp. If I hadn't done that, she would've had you." Vlad's frown darkened as his eyes darted to the side. "I barely missed her."

Danny followed Vlad's stare to the bricks of the alley where a dark scorch mark that had definitely not been there a few minutes ago sat. Danny gaped at it. "What? You tried to blast her?"

Vlad looked at Danny, eyebrows furrowed. "You don't remember anything of this, do you?"

Danny didn't answer, looking back to the scorch mark with wide eyes. It really spoke for itself. He walked towards it. "I - no, none of that. I - _ow_!" Something jabbed into his foot and he couldn't help the yell.

Immediately, Vlad was next to him. "What is it?"

"My foot-" Danny struggled to keep his breathing steady through the pain. He lifted his foot, Vlad supporting him, and looked at the bottom of his shoe. A nail protruded from the sole and Danny struggled not to throw up.

"Breathe, Daniel." Vlad steadied the teen. "I'll phase it out. Don't look at it, just look up and keep breathing."

Danny nodded, looking up at the rooftops. Breathe in, out. Breathe in, out. Breathe in - 

Abruptly the pain vanished. Danny sagged in relief.

"There, that should be better." Vlad tossed the nail over to the dumpster. "You'll probably need new shoes. Maybe invest in ones with thicker soles if you plan to continue lingering in alleyways."

… Was that a joke? Danny thought it might be, but he honestly couldn't tell. "Shouldn't I go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot or something?"

"No, your healing should take care of all of that." Vlad released him and stepped back, brushing off his suit. "Haven't you noticed you don't get sick?"

"Oh. What about stitches or something?" He didn't really want to be walking around with a hole in his foot, even if it wouldn't get infected.

"Have you truly not noticed?" Vlad regarded Danny with eyebrows raised. "You heal at an accelerated rate. Check your foot. It has most likely stopped bleeding." 

With a frown, Danny slipped off his shoe and pulled down his sock, grimacing when stuck threads pulled away. Vlad… was right. He wasn't bleeding anymore. The teen looked up at the older man. "How did you know I could do that? Have you been stalking me?"

Vlad raised an eyebrow. "You forget I have had these abilities for twenty years. You have many of the abilities I had when starting out. I'm certain as time goes on, you'll develop more of my abilities. Cloning, short range teleportation, shielding, and more."

As _time_ goes on? Danny's gaze jumped to meet Vlad's. "What about time?"

Vlad frowned. "Well, it will take time for the powers to-"

"No, I mean do you have time powers? There's a ghost that does, do we?" If that was the case, Danny could fix this on his own! He could bring Dad back!

"You've met-" Vlad stopped and shook his head. "No, Daniel, I'm afraid not. What Clockwork does is quite unique. If we have that ability, it's locked in our genetic code."

"Oh." Danny studied the scorch mark again, putting his shoe back on. "I thought you were with Mom at the bank."

"Yes, we finished that errand some time ago." Vlad's voice had an odd tone to it. "Jazmine said you'd been gone for a while, and that you hadn't perhaps been in the best state of mind when you left. I thought I would see if you were nearby, and then I saw the pink light."

Danny tried to picture the face of the girl. If there had been glowing, he should have been able to see her face.

He could picture nothing but a blur.

"Your foot will be sore for a while yet. You probably don't want to walk home on it. I can get my car."

Danny shook his head. "It's not that far." 

"Oh?" Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Walk on it."

Danny rolled his eyes and turned to walk to the street. He set his weight on his hurt foot to take a step and sucked in a breath, immediately lifting his foot again.

"I'll get my car."

"No, it's fine. I can do it." Danny knew he was being stubborn, but he wasn't going to have Vlad drive four blocks just to drive him home. He could make it. It might take him a while, but he could.

Behind him, Vlad sighed. A flash of cold light washed over Danny and frigid hands seized his shoulders. The teen's eyes widened and he tried to twist out of the hold, but he felt the empty feeling of intangibility wash over him and his feet left the ground. Eyes wide as the ground grew smaller beneath him, Danny realized that this must be what his friends felt whenever he flew them – insecure and not in control. Danny didn't like the feeling. The ground literally blurred beneath them and they were in his room seconds later. Danny stumbled as he regained his balance, disoriented, then turned to Vlad.

"What is your problem!?" Danny kept his voice low. He didn't want to bring Mom or Jazz up here. Vlad shimmered back into visibility, confusion crossing his face.

"What's the matter, Daniel? You said you didn't want me to drive you and you clearly couldn't walk." The man didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with what he'd done.

"So that makes it okay to just grab me and take me somewhere? Pretty sure that's called _abduction_."

"Daniel, you're being overdramatic-"

"And you're being a _crazy frootloop_!"

Vlad's eyes flashed crimson. "Don't take that tone with me." 

Danny swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

Vlad continued, "I was assisting you, because you didn't seem willing to help yourself. If that is too 'crazy' for you, I suppose I'll let you be 'abducted' next time, because that's _exactly_ what that girl was trying to do. I _apologize_ for trying to help." Without another word, he was gone.

Danny stood tense for another few seconds before his shoulders slumped. Why had he done that? Vlad really had only been trying to help. The teen just… couldn't help it. He'd been so mad and wasn't sure why. That seemed to be happening a lot. 

He glanced at the time. He was supposed to go over to Tucker's soon. Maybe the other boy would have an idea about the weird girl in the alley.

* * *

Tucker wasn't much help. He'd mostly been focused on the fact that Danny couldn't remember what the girl looked like. He'd suggested some crazy theories from the girl being a ghost - even though Danny's ghost sense didn't go off - to the girl being a spy for the government - which seemed even more ridiculous. Eventually, the two teens moved on to looking up Jump City on the internet.

"Oh, dude, look at this guy's arm!" Tucker leaned closer to the screen. "It turns into a cannon!"

Danny shook his head. "It reminds me too much of Skulker and his weird suit. Do you think that green kid is a ghost?"

"Maybe. Are there any ghosts that can turn into animals?"

"I don't know." Danny frowned. "Youngblood has that weird animal ghost, but I don't know if there are any others. I mean, there's one that can control time, so maybe?"

"Control _time_?" Tucker sat back to look at Danny. "Dude, can you do that? That would be so useful on tests, or like trying to make curfew."

"No. It doesn't look like I'll get that power either. Hey, that's the guy that used to be with Batman right?" 

"Yeah, his name is Robin. Look at those _ladies_ though. I'm sure one of them is single." Tucker wiggled his eyebrows. "We could double date. I could go with the tall one and you could go with the scary one." 

Danny rolled his eyes. "Did you forget you aren't moving?"

"I can visit you. And while I'm there, if a superhero ends up falling madly in love with me - don't look at me like that, it could happen!" 

"Yeah, sure Bad Luck Tuck. Hey, look at where they are in that picture. S.T.A.R. Labs. That's where my mom is going to be working."

After a quick glare for the nickname, Tucker typed the business name into the search engine. "Have you already looked it up?"

"Not really." Danny leaned forward as Tucker clicked on the company's website. "They have more locations than I thought. They do a bunch too. Weapons, technology, healthcare, genetic manipulation…" Danny trailed off, Vlad's words from earlier buzzing in his head. "Huh."

"What's up, man?" 

"Oh, nothing. You wanna play Doom?"

"You're on."

* * *

"Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories, how may I help you?"

Danny hesitated for a second, swallowing, before he replied. "Hi. Er- Hello. Um, I was wondering if you had any information on –" He paused as his mind went blank trying to remember any of the terms he'd read last night, after he'd left Tucker's. "Er, on gene splicing?"

"May I ask who is calling?" The tone was slightly irritated, though still polite.

"Oh, I'm, I'm doing a school project on… uh, genetic research and I figured you guys would have the best information."

The person on the other end of the line's voice warmed slightly. "I see. Well, what would you like to know?"

"Uh," Well, he was getting somewhere, at least. "Gene splicing? Or taking one part of your DNA and changing it? Specifically in regards to, like, unlocking powers?"

"Are you talking about experimentation to see if we can chemically trigger metahuman abilities?"

Maybe not metahuman, but close enough. "Yeah, exactly."

"I'll reach out to our researchers. I don't think we do, but it may be something they're interested in exploring. Thank you for your call and have a great day."

"Wait, I wanted-" The call cut off. Danny scowled and dropped the receiver, the change clattering into the tray beneath the phone. He didn't bother picking it up, instead slouching over to the Nasty Burger the payphone was in front of. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but it wasn't being hung up on. They could've at least taken an email address or something in case 'metahuman' gene splicing was something they were working on. 

"Danny!"

He wasn't super hungry, but didn't feel like going home yet either. Vlad was coming over again and Danny felt awkward after what had happened the day before.

"Danny!"

He turned at the sound of his name to see Valerie jogging towards him. "Oh, hi."

"Hey, I was calling you."

"Sorry." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I was just… thinking."

Valerie's smile turned sympathetic. "How are you doing?"

Shrugging, the teen looked away, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Fine."

"Yeah, stupid question. It just slipped out." Surprised, Danny looked up to meet his friend's eyes. Her mouth was slightly twisted. "I always hated when people asked me that after my mom died. What was I supposed to say, that I hated everything? That I just wanted things to go back to normal? It's a stupid question."

Wow. That was _exactly_ how it felt. "I, uh…"

"Are you meeting Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger?" She changed the subject like nothing had ever happened and Danny's shoulders relaxed. 

"No, Tucker is having dinner with his parents, and Sam is on a date with her new boyfriend." Danny rolled his eyes. Tucker had told him about the new guy and Sam. Danny didn't like the guy. Gregor just seemed off. With Danny moving soon, there wasn't much he could do about it, but he still didn't like it. "Do you want to grab something?"

Valerie was shaking her head before he finished speaking. "No way. I get enough of the Nasty Burger already. I'd kill for a frosty, though. You, uh, want to get one?" Her cheeks reddened slightly and she looked over towards the street.

Danny hesitated. "I don't know, do they come without fingers?"

"Danny!" Valerie made a face. "Thanks. Now I don't want anything."

The teen smiled before looking back at the fast food joint, the expression fading. "Actually, I think I'm going to get something here. We're moving in a couple weeks and I don't know how many chances I'll have."

"You're moving?" Valerie's eyebrows raised. "Where? Like out of town?"

"More like on the other side of the country." Danny rolled his eyes. "California."

"That's so far!"

"I know."

" _Why_?"

With a sigh, Danny stuck his hands back into his pockets. "My mom says it's too hard living in the house after… everything. And she interned in California and wants to go back. Like my life wasn't hard enough already." At least Valerie would be here to deal with the ghosts.

Valerie didn't answer for a minute. "We're still going to talk," She finally said, "I'll IM and we'll talk all the time."

"Yeah, okay." That was what Sam and Tucker had said too. Things wouldn't be too bad in California if he could still talk with his friends. He wished he'd spent more time with all of them that summer. It'd be a lot harder to see them when he was in California and she was still in Illinois.

"And, Danny." At the seriousness in her tone, Danny turned to look at her. She looked completely sincere. "If you need help, or are in trouble, I'll always help you. I don't care if it's girl trouble, or life trouble, or…" She trailed off, then quickly added, "or if it's invasion of the body snatchers, I want you to know that I will always help."

Danny blinked. "Invasion of the body snatchers?"

Valerie blushed. "We have an old movie channel that my dad loves. It was on last night." She laughed self-consciously, then smiled. "Still goes."

Danny smiled back. "Thanks. I, uh, think I'm gonna go grab a Nasty Burger." He tilted his head towards the restaurant. "I'll see you later?"

With an exaggerated eye roll, Valerie started towards the building. "I guess I can deal with it."

Danny smiled and followed her, the heat in his face only barely registering. He was just warm from the summer. That was all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did Clockwork say no? To prevent The Ultimate Enemy timeline.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a burst of inspiration and got this done. The quicker the rewrite, the quicker I can get to the new chapters, so why wait to post.

"Daniel."

Danny looked up from putting another pile of clothes in a packing box. "What do you want, Vlad?"

The man stood in the doorway of his bedroom, arms crossed with thumbs resting upon his biceps. His suit coat was missing, along with his tie. With his sleeves rolled up to just below his elbow, he looked more casual than Danny had ever seen him. He stepped in and closed the door part way. Danny took a step back and crossed his own arms. Vlad turned to face him. "I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you," Danny returned.

Vlad closed his eyes and sighed through his nose before pulling out Danny's desk chair and sitting in it, ankle resting on his knee. "I'm really trying here, Daniel. Please don't treat me like the bad guy."

Right. Like Vlad had proven that he wasn't the bad guy so many times. He'd been different in the last month, though… Danny was constantly seesawing between trusting Vlad and detesting the halfa. It was exhausting. "You tried to kill Dad."

Vlad jerked back in surprise and, a moment later, Danny's eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. He looked away, sticking his hands in his pockets and hunching his shoulders.

"Daniel – I – What?" Vlad's voice wasn't the composed, smooth tones it normally was. He spoke unevenly, the pitch slightly higher.

Danny slouched even more. "At the reunion." He regretted saying anything, but now that it was out in the open, he could admit that it was what truly had been bothering him. Until that was resolved, Danny couldn't trust Vlad's 'nice-guy-just-a-friend' about-face.

He heard Vlad exhale deeply. "Daniel… I'm not proud of what I did. But, Daniel-" The chair's front legs creaked – "I would had had your father disgraced, discredited, and, yes, divorced, but, Daniel-" Danny twitched as Vlad said his name again – "I never wanted your father dead."

Danny swallowed. He took a deep breath with his jaw set, staring determinedly at a point on the wall to his right, blinking hard. He wasn't going to show Vlad of all people how much mentions of Dad could randomly upset him. It didn't happen all the time, but it still could sometimes shake Danny up with the re-realization that Dad was dead. After a moment, when Danny could trust himself to speak and not sound dumb in front of Vlad, he swallowed again. "What did you want to talk about?"

The man's voice was back to normal when Vlad spoke again. "I saw you earlier with that girl when I drove past that fast food place this afternoon. Since she didn't come in with you, I assume you walked home alone?"

Frowning, Danny replied, "So?"

Irritation flared in the teen as Vlad sighed in exasperation. Yes, he'd obviously not lived up to what Vlad expected him to be. Big surprise. Good thing it's wasn't up to him what Danny acted like. "Didn't I warn you about being alone just yesterday, after you ran into that other girl in the alley?"

"No. You didn't." He looked straight at Vlad. "You didn't tell me anything." Did he know something about the girl.

Vlad shook his head. "Well, it's not important right now. Just-"

"It seems pretty important to me. Do you know who she was?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about. Anyway-"

"Y'know, Vlad," Danny cut him off again, "that doesn't really make me want to trust you." He'd thought they were maybe going to get along okay after what Vlad had just said, but Vlad had to just screw it up.

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose, "Alright. I have an… associate. She wanted something in your father's bankbox. I can't say more because your mother doesn't wish for you or your sister to know about everything in there and I'm going to respect her wishes. Regardless, I refused. It isn't mine to give. She sent that girl after you because you are your father's son and she wanted leverage." What had Dad had that was so important? How did that person know what was in the bankbox? "Now, please don't go asking Maddie about what was in that box. If she wants you to know, she will tell you.

"I suppose I neglected to warn you yesterday, so I will tell you now. I do not trust that associate to stay away from you, so you need to be careful. You need to refrain from being alone, and you need to be cautious of who you spend your time with."

Danny looked up from where he'd been toying with one of the rocket models he'd built with Dad at that. He'd been doing his best to not interrupt Vlad when the man was telling him what he wanted to know. "It sounds like you're talking about Valerie."

Vlad hesitated, then nodded. "I'm not sure that keeping company with someone who wants to kill you is better than being taken by someone who wants you alive."

Danny's eyes widened and his mouth went dry, protectiveness welling inside him. "How did you know about Valerie?" He set down the model.

Slowly blinking once, Vlad replied sardonically, "I do have eyes. It's fairly obvious she is the one who is the Red Huntress."

Scowling, Danny turned away to pick up another pile of clothes from his drawer to pack. "Thanks," he muttered sarcastically. "I need to pack now."

"Daniel," he heard Vlad begin, "Listen to what I'm telling you. This is important."

"Yeah." Danny closed an empty drawer with his knee. He wished Vlad would just leave.

"Daniel-"

Danny whirled. "I got it, okay? Leave me alone!"

Standing and narrowing his eyes, Vlad looked like he was going to say something, but the halfa sighed and left the room.

* * *

"I'm still annoyed at you for not telling me you guys were moving earlier," Sam informed Danny as they helped Jazz pack up her room. There were three piles: suitcases to go to Harvard with her, boxes that would be going to Jump City, and a whole ton of Jazz's things that were being donated.

"You were busy with your boyfriend!" Danny protested.

Sam shook her head. "Gregor isn't my boyfriend and that's no excuse." She turned to Jazz. "How many of these books are you taking?"

Jazz bit her lip and Danny quickly added, "I don't think you'll have anywhere to sleep if you take all these. Huge bookshelves aren't really standard in tiny dorm rooms."

Glaring at him, Jazz replied, "I know that, Danny." She turned back to look at the stacks of books, then left the room. "I'll be right back."

Danny dropped an untidy stack of shirts into one of the suitcases. Sam stood across the room, carefully taking down various knick-knacks from shelves and setting them on Jazz's desk.

"So," Danny turned to look at Sam as she spoke, "How do you think you'll like living somewhere where it's someone else's job to save the day?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Tucker's already grilled me about all of this. Who the Teen Titans are, where they've been, what they do-" and that included  _ all _ the members of the Teen Titans, including the known and suspected honorary ones - "and, besides, they aren't even there right now. It's been other superheroes switching out." Tucker had apparently done nothing but research since Danny had told him about the move. Apparently, the original Teen Titans hadn't been in Jump City in months. No one knew why, but there were tons of conspiracy theories ranging from the team's retirement to something about young heroes disappearing all over the world.

Sam shrugged. "They'll be back eventually."

Danny pulled another pile of shirts from Jazz's dresser. "I guess it'll be weird. It's hard dropping everything to stop a ghost and it'll be nice that I don't have to, but…" He shrugged. "I don't really know."

"You'll keep in touch, right?" Sam's voice was quieter this time and Danny glanced over at her. She was still taking down decorations.

"Yeah, of course."

"You better."

"Make sure you and Tuck don't kill each other while I'm gone." A sock hit Danny in the head. "Hey!"

"You're the one going to a city with literal supervillains. Since your mom deactivated the portal, we probably won't see any ghosts anymore, and Valerie can take care of any that do show up. You don't get killed while Tucker and I aren't around to watch your back." Sam folded her arms and scuffed her boot against the ground, watching it. "We're not going to travel to California to pick up your pieces because you didn't know when to stay out of something."

"I'm not going to get involved with anything. With my luck, everyone would think like my parents and the Justice League would be trying to dissect me." Danny dropped another pile of clothes into a suitcase. Jazz would probably refold everything, but at least it was out of the drawers. "I'm just going to be normal there. Maybe, without ghosts around, I can even get my grades up enough that I can still get into the kind of school that could get me to NASA." He hesitated. "It doesn't feel real yet. Two more days until Jazz leaves and then five more until we leave. I've lived here all my life and it just… doesn't feel real."

"Danny-"

"Put as many books in here as you can and I'll pack up the rest to move with you guys." Jazz announced, carrying another suitcase into the room. 

Danny and Sam both looked at her.

"What? If it fits in the suitcase, it'll fit in the dorm."

* * *

Saying goodbye to Jazmine had been harder than saying goodbye to anyone else. He'd been surprised at exactly _ how _ rough it had been. It had been hard saying goodbye to Sam, Tuck, and Valerie too, but it was so much harder to see his sister off on a plane to the other side of the country. He'd known she'd be leaving, but it hadn't sunk in really until he was hugging her goodbye. Mom and Jazz had been crying and he just couldn't help joining in. His big sister had been there for him whenever he'd needed her. He regretted now that he hadn't told her his secret. She would've kept it for him and helped him with Mom and Dad or with ghosts, and he was suddenly sad they'd missed out on that. Keeping secrets together like they had when they were little. Of course, when they were little, the secrets had been dumb things, but he missed being that close to her. He'd miss her. He'd miss her a lot. She'd called when she'd landed and again when she'd gotten to her apartment. She was safe and settled, but Danny still felt worried for her.

It had been almost a week and it still felt weird without her in the RV with Mom and Danny as they packed all their stuff in and left Amity Park. The first night, they'd stopped in a town in Nebraska called North Platte. He hadn't seen much of the city as the motels were right next to the freeway. There was an Applebee's right across the road from the Quality Inn they were staying at. They'd hit a lot of traffic on the way there, so there hadn't been time to do anything but eat and go to bed. The next night they'd stayed in Salt Lake City, Utah. It had been a lot harder finding a hotel there since they were located a way down the road instead of right off the exit. Eventually, they'd found a Hampton Inn. Despite some construction, they'd made better time than they'd thought they would, and had decided to look around a bit. It was much smaller than Amity Park, but they had some cool things. Mom had insisted on going to Temple Square. There were a lot of people there and the temple, the main building and attraction, was pretty cool. They'd eaten dinner at another Applebee's and had gotten up early that morning to leave for their final stretch.

Danny had mixed feelings about getting to Jump City. He was excited about seeing where he'd be living from now on, but he was also nervous. Neither he or Mom had seen their apartment. Vlad had gotten it for them on one of his weekly or more business meetings in Jump City. Apparently it was a two bedroom with a good size living room and kitchen in the heart of the city. Normally apartments like that would be over two thousand dollars a month, but Vlad had apparently gotten a really good deal and the rent was less than half that.

"Danny, we're here." Mom announced. Danny looked out the window in time to see the 'Welcome to Jump City' sign. "We still have two more exits, but we're here."

It reminded him of Amity Park, but Jump City was very different at the same time. There were more tall buildings here. Danny couldn't see any details as they flew by at eighty miles-per-hour, but he could get a general idea of the city. The biggest collection of tall buildings was to the West of the car, where he assumed the bay was. Mom signaled and pulled off at their exit and Danny sat straighter to see the city. They circled around under the overpass junction and then they were surrounded by buildings. The first few blocks had buildings only a couple stories high in neutral colours. The black of broken windows contrasted with the whitewashed walls. After those buildings, there was a Walmart and then they passed a large park with kids playing soccer and running around. There was a college on his right with groups of students standing around and going in and out.

As they got farther in, they had to slow down due to the noon traffic. Danny took the opportunity to look around more. There was a Spanish market next to a salon. A girl carried a bulging duffle of hammers, tubes of caulk, screwdrivers, and other tools out of a door and lifted it into the back of an old gray truck. A group of young kids on colourful green, red, and blue scooters crossed the street at the light. An elderly couple holding hands walked out of a Chinese restaurant. A man pushed a stroller while a pregnant women walked beside him, both laughing. They passed a group of teenagers exiting a large pizza place and turned left. At the end of the block, they turned left again and Mom pulled over in front of a tall apartment building. They both got out and looked up at the building. It looked decent, no broken windows or graffiti.

Mom looked at the watch she had put on that morning. It was odd to see Mom wearing jewelry. When she wore her hazmat suit, she didn't wear any accessories because it could be a safety risk. Actually, it was weird to see Mom in normal clothes, out of her hazmat suit. Danny hadn't seen her wear it in weeks, so he was getting used to the sight, but it was still odd.

"Vlad should be here in about fifteen minutes to give us the key," she said, putting her arm down. Danny looked at her.

"What? Why does he have it?"

Mom smiled at him. "We haven't seen him since last week, honey. He got the key when he was at another meeting here. I sent the deposit with him."

It had been a while since he'd seen Vlad, since the day he'd called Star Labs. Vlad had been busy in California and had seen Mom only once since then.

"Well," Mom smiled at him, "We have time. Want to get lunch?"

"Yeah." Danny hadn't eaten anything but car snacks since they'd left at five thirty that morning. "I'm starving."

"Pizza okay?"

"Pizza's great."

They climbed back into the RV and headed back around the corner to the pizza place they'd passed. It was busy, but with only the two of them, they were able to be seated right away.

Mom glanced at her watch again, then pulled out her cell phone. "I'm going to let Vlad know we won't be there. Is it alright if he joins us, sweetie?"

Danny shrugged. "Whatever."

Lunch actually was all right. The pizza was good and Mom and Vlad had started telling stories about when they were in college with Dad.

"Oh, do you remember when we all took that road trip Spring Break to Boston?" Mom grinned at Vlad as he groaned and put his face in his hands.

"Oh, please don't remind me."

"What happened?" Danny asked.

"Well," Mom began, "Your father, Vlad, and I were going to Boston for Spring Break, but Vlad took the wrong entrance and we ended up going the opposite direction."

Vlad's groan was muffled by his hands. "I realized that where we were didn't look anything like where we should be when we were in North Dakota, nearly to Montana."

"So, we pulled over," Mom continued, "And we decided that we were so far already that we'd just go to Washington instead. It turned out that Depeche Mode was playing a sold out concert that week, but your dad knew some people and got us all in."

Vlad nodded, setting his hands on the table. "It turned out better than the excursion we had planned, but for the next year and a half, every time we drove somewhere, they gave me a hard time."

"If you didn't insist on driving everywhere, we wouldn't have given you such a hard time."

Vlad's eyebrows raised. "You wanted me to let Jack drive, after he broke the steering wheel on our way to the Summerwind Mansion?"

"Wait, what?" Danny quickly interjected. He hadn't ever been interested in hearing his parent's college stories, even though that had never stopped them from sharing. He'd never heard  _ that _ though.

"Your father's always been a strong man, and in college it was like he didn't know his own strength. In three months of knowing him, he broke a steering wheel, an emergency break, and the clutch pedal, just driving around. There's a reason the RV is so heavy duty..." Mom gave a half smile, lips trembling as she trailed off. Danny looked away.

"Speaking of vehicles," Vlad spoke up again, "have you decided what you want to get?"

"You're selling the Fenton RV?" The teen's head jerked up. Sure it was embarrassing, but Dad had built it, they'd even just been talking about how Dad had built it!

"No, sweetheart, but I might put it in storage and get a sedan. The RV takes a lot of gas, and prices around here are much higher than in Amity. I'm not getting rid of the RV." Mom reached out to grab Danny's hand, but Danny pretended he didn't see it and picked up his drink, looking away. He didn't want her trying to hold his hand. He wasn't a kid.

After lunch, they headed back over to see the apartment. It was nice. It was nicely sized, with a tan carpet and white walls. They'd gotten a furnished apartment and put all their old furniture in storage back in Amity. It was clean and the windows let a lot of light in. There was another apartment across the hall on this floor. Four college students lived there. The door had been open when Danny, Mom, and Vlad had come upstairs and they'd greeted them enthusiastically, offering soda and inviting them to sit down. They'd talked for a while before starting to get the boxes. Their neighbours had offered to help and everything was in the apartment quickly. Their neighbours had gone back to their game after telling Danny, Mom, and Vlad that they were always welcome and their door was always open to them. Mom and Vlad had gone to find the parking garage this apartment building shared with the buildings around and Danny started carrying boxes into his room.

He wandered over to the small window that faced the alleyway. There was a fire escape outside it, leading down to the alleyway that separated this apartment building from the next. Mom had told him not to climb onto it until she was checked that it was safe, but Danny was sure it was fine. Besides, usually when parents said things like that, it meant they'd never get around to it.

The window opened halfway with little difficulty. At the halfway point, though, it stopped short. Danny maneuvered his shoulder under it and shoved up. The window made a cracking noise and slid to the top with a jerk, hitting the top of the frame loudly. Wincing, Danny glanced over his shoulder to see if Mom was upstairs yet and had heard that. After a second of no one calling his name or asking what the noise was, Danny checked to make sure he hadn't broken the window. It seemed fine, luckily. Danny stepped over the window, ducked under, and pulled his other leg out. The fire escape clattered as he stepped onto the metal platform, but showed no signs of breaking. Danny looked down into the alley, three stories below him. It was a normal looking alleyway. There was a dumpster against the back wall and a couple scraps of trash on the ground. The walls were pretty clear of graffiti, though he could see faint outlines of where past paint had been mostly removed.

There was a loud bang at the street in front of the apartment building and Danny leaned over the rail to see what the noise was. A slight cloud of smoke hovered around the street, but was soon dispersed by the wind. There was a huge, hairy man, a little kid with mechanical spider legs, and a kid with a giant eye on his head running down the street. Danny leaned as far as he could. He was used to seeing strange ghosts, but living people that looked like that wasn't something he'd seen before. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were yelling back and forth to each other. Danny blinked, and there was a boy in bright yellow standing in front of the group. They all skidded to a stop, before scattering. Danny blinked again and the boy was gone and the group was out of his limited view.

He stayed there for a few more minutes to see if anything else would happen. Nothing did and he pulled back from the railing and climbed back into his room. He pushed on the window to close it and it slid neatly, without resistance. Frowning, Danny pushed it back up and it slid up easily, without a noise. Danny guessed he'd knocked something loose. He closed the window and tried to turn the latch to lock it. It didn't work. Danny played with it a bit, realizing he'd broken that too, before he gave up. He went to get another stack of boxes to bring to his room, mind still on what he'd seen. He had a feeling that, superhero or not, living in Jump City wouldn't be any safer than living in Amity Park.


	4. Chapter 4

Between when they moved in and school started, Danny explored his area of the city. Mom worked during the day, so the teen familiarized himself with the way to and from school, to the local fast food restaurants, and the movie theater. The school looked pretty normal. Two stories, several entrances, a grassy area to the side and extending around to the back, and several parking lots. It was a lot bigger than Casper high had been. 

He'd only gotten lost once, on the way from the school to his apartment. He ended up at a sudden break in the city where, about fifty get from the road, there was a grassy hill with a gravel path. Interested, Danny had climbed the surprisingly steep hill. He'd come over the crest of the hill to find wide cliffs with the bay spread out below him. There was a huge, windowed building in the shape of a 'T' on a small island on one side of the bay. Danny assumed that had been the 'Titans Tower' that Tucker had talked about, headquarters of the Teen Titans. Danny wasn't sure if it was currently being used with the Teen Titans away, but it still looked cool.

For being so near the city, the spot had been surprisingly calm and quiet. The waves and seagulls that Danny had been seeing all over the city made noise, of course, but it was a different kind of noise. There was no honking or constant… well, Danny could only describe it as a kind of hum that the city always had. Here was just… wind, water, and birds. It was nice. He made sure to remember the way as he headed back to the apartment, in case he needed a place to get away. 

Danny woke up earlier then he wanted to on the morning of the first day of school. He tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't stop  _ thinking _ . This was his first first day of school where Dad wasn't going to drive him. Even if Danny walked every day for the rest of the year, Dad had always driven him the first day. They'd left earlier than they needed to so they could get breakfast on the way and Danny always felt afterwards that maybe he could handle things after all.

He didn't feel anywhere close to that reassurance now.

After laying in bed for too long, thinking about all the things Dad was going to miss this year - he was signed up for driving class next semester and  _ Dad wasn't there _ \- he needed to move and do something. It didn't matter that he didn't need to wake up for another hour, he couldn't last another minute. Three months ago, he would have gone flying. Three months ago, though, his family had been complete. After what happened last time he flew off while his family was still sleeping, he didn't dare leave.

Finally, after a moment of debate, Danny settled on climbing onto the fire escape. It was hot outside, despite how early it was, but Danny didn't really feel it. He leaned on the rail and watched the cars pass as he tried not to think. He'd called Tucker and Sam, and Valerie last night, at different times, and they'd all said how they missed him and how it would be weird not seeing him at school. He missed them too. It felt like there was a small part of him missing and gone numb when he thought of them and Jazz. He'd talked to her the day before too. She'd had her usual lecture on having a positive attitude and doing his homework and everything he usually rolled his eyes at. He'd still ignored what she had been saying, just listening to the familiar sound of her voice. He missed her more than he'd thought he would. Who knew not having a sister to sneak around would suck so much? She was loving Cambridge, of course. She'd already learned how to navigate around campus and was quickly learning the town. She made it sound like she was living life the way she had always wanted to, and Danny was a little jealous. How could she move on so easily, when Danny had nightmares and couldn't stop thinking about what ifs? Was there something wrong with Danny that he was stuck dwelling and  _ couldn't stop thinking _ about the stiff, sticky carpet, dark with-

The alarm went off, interrupting Danny from his thoughts. He shook his head and ducked back inside to turn off the alarm.

Mom was already in the kitchen with cereal and bowls out for breakfast when Danny came out. He didn't have much of an appetite and mostly scooped up cereal pieces just to drop them back into the milk.

"Danny, sweetheart, how are you feeling? Are you excited for your first day?"

Danny shrugged. "I guess."  _ No _ . Glancing at the time, he carried his soggy cereal to the sink to dump it out and picked up his backpack after he put the bowl and spoon in the open dishwasher. "I should probably go," he said reluctantly.

Mom put her own dishes in the dishwasher rack and utensil basket. "Here, honey, let me take you."

Danny hesitated, shoving his hands into his pockets and studying the cereal box sitting on the table. "…Okay."

Mom had bought a white car a few days after they'd moved. It was completely normal, a four door sedan like many of the other cars on the street. It was totally normal. Danny hated it.

Without a word, he climbed in, buckled up, and stared out the window. Maybe he could pretend that everything wasn't wrong if he didn't look at any of it. He could pretend that it was all okay, just for a few minutes.

"Danny, sweetheart?"

Or not. He didn't turn his head, watching as they passed the empty sidewalk outside of the pizzeria. "Yeah?"

Mom took a deep breath as they stopped at a light. "Your father, without my knowledge, had saved quite a lot of money for 'just in case' in a box at the bank and I was thinking about going back to college in the Spring." She glanced over at him as she accelerated. "My current degrees have me working in the biotechnology department at S.T.A.R. Labs, but I'd really like to move into their departments that deal with metahumans and extraterrestrials so I can introduce ghosts to their research."

Oh, so Mom _ hadn't _ given up on hunting ghosts after all. Great. If she built a portal that ghosts could get through  _ here _ it would be a disaster. "Cool." At least that answered one question of what had been in the box. But what else had been in there that someone Vlad knew would be interested in? How had the 'associate' even known what was in the box? He opened his mouth to ask, but Mom continued talking.

"What do you think, sweetheart?" The car slowed as they came in sight of the high school.

"Uh, yeah. Cool." He wasn't sure why she was asking him, but okay. He didn't care if she went back to college.

"Here we are. Your school looks nice. I'm sure you'll have a great time here." Danny could hear a smile in her voice, but he wasn't so confident. She was looking at the school, not at him.

"Yeah, thanks for the ride." He popped open the door.

"I love you sweetheart!"

"Yeah, bye Mom." He shut the door behind him and headed in. This school had homeroom and an open campus for lunch, but their rules seemed the same as at Casper High otherwise. He figured high schools everywhere were pretty much the same.

The teacher he had for homeroom also taught science and wildlife biology. There were stuffed birds and other stuffed animals all over the room, along with mounted heads. It gave the room a really weird smell. Danny got there about five minutes before the bell and took a seat about the middle. Students continued to trickle in as Danny doodled on his notepad. Finally, the bell rang and the teacher stood up and locked the door.

"You will not be late to my class," He announced, "You will be on time or you will not attend." He wasn't very old, but he was balding and had glasses. "Three unexcused absences and you will drop a grade."

The teen in the desk next to Danny, a tall boy with black hair in tight coils and a letterman's jacket, rolled his eyes at Danny. Danny blinked, taken aback. Normally guys like him didn't look twice at Danny except to make his life miserable.

Someone knocked on the door and the teacher, who still hadn't introduced himself, nodded to a student to open the door. Three boys and two girls filed in and found seats, one boy next to Danny.

"I will excuse your absence because it is the first day, but do not be late again," the teacher commanded, "I lock the door at the bell." The tardy students nodded and the teacher turned to write his name, 'Mr. Tyrann', on the chalkboard.

"It's homeroom," The other teen muttered. "Pass or fail. There's no way _ to _ drop a grade."

Danny snorted and the other boy grinned.

"Hey, I'm Ryan."

"Uh, I'm Danny." This was really weird. Was this kid going to turn into Dash once he realized what a loser Danny was?

"No talking!" Their heads snapped to look at Mr. Tyrann. "In my class, you need to use your ears, not your mouths."

Danny glanced at Ryan to see him rolling his eyes again. He held in a smile and looked down at his notebook.

"Now, if you look at the handbooks on your desk, we are going to go through the policies of Jump City Central High School."

As soon as the class ended and Danny was back in the hallway, Ryan started talking again. "In my class," Ryan mocked, "Please. That's not even a class. All we do is sit around."

Danny chuckled slightly and Ryan turned to face him, walking backwards through the hall.

"So are you a freshman?"

"Uh, no, I'm a sophomore. I just moved here from Illinois." The teen shrugged. Ryan actually seemed really nice for a guy in a letterman's jacket.

"Are you from Chicago?"

Danny shook his head. "No, I'm from Amity Park. It's not as big as Chicago." 

Ryan nodded "Well, nice to-" He cut off as a blond boy with multicolored streaks walking the opposite way knocked into Ryan's shoulder with his own. Ryan's face darkened. "Hey!"

The other boy turned, lifting his hands in the air. "Whoops! Sorry. Maybe it would work better if you watched where you were going."

Face twisting, Ryan took a step forward. "Trying to start something, Jace?"

Jace turned his hands palm up. "Are you looking for an excuse, Ryan?" He mimicked the way Ryan had said his name. Before anything else could happen, Mr. Tyrann stepped into the hall yelling at trudging, half-asleep students to get to class. Ryan stood for a moment, then turned and strode the way he and Danny had originally been going. Danny stood still for a moment before also continuing. Ryan slowed until he was level with Danny.

"Sorry about that." Ryan was smiling again. "Jace's a jerk."

"What's his problem?" Danny looked back over his shoulder, but the blond kid was gone.

"He doesn't like me because I don't get along with his girlfriend. Forget about him. What class do you have next?"

With a grimace, Danny sighed. "Gym."

"Hey, me too. Don't sound so depressed - it's the first day. They never make us do stuff on the first day."

* * *

The gym teacher made them run the mile. Gym had been the same as it normally was, terrible and exhausting. Danny was so used to holding back, he hadn't thought about the possibility of doing otherwise until after class. He'd never actually tested how fast he could run when not transformed. Ryan, who was on the basketball team, had no trouble with it.

The other teen had first lunch, like Danny, and had invited Danny to sit with him and his friends.

The school had a lunchroom and a commons area to eat in, along with an outdoor patio. Ryan's friends were almost all jocks, most of them on the football team, one on the soccer and baseball teams, and the rest on the basketball team. A few of them were on both the basketball and football teams. 

Even though Danny had expected to get kicked out or find out that the whole thing was a joke, lunch had been fine. The guys were actually nice. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that there were plenty of sports teams at the school and in the city, so there wasn't one 'star player'. Ryan was pretty funny, too, though Danny had been a little surprised at a couple of jokes about another girl. A guy next to Ryan had told the dark haired teen to 'cool it' and Ryan had laughed and changed the subject.

Math was after lunch, and that Jace guy ended up being in Danny's class. The seating chart actually had Jace right behind Danny, so Danny was a little concerned about the other teen messing with him, but Jace didn't really seem to notice Danny. After that, Danny's last class was English. The teacher apparently had a minor in Shakespeare Studies to go with her teaching degree and planned to make Shakespeare a big part of that year. 

Great.

Since it was the first day, they'd been dismissed early to go back to homeroom. This apparently gave them a chance to discuss any 'concerns' they had about the upcoming year with the homeroom teacher. Like Danny would talk to that guy if he had concerns.

"So, how do you like Jump?" Ryan dropped into the seat besides Danny.

The teen shrugged. "It's fine, I guess." He rolled a pencil between his fingers.

"Sometimes Clayface or somebody will show up a few blocks away and they cancel school, so hopefully when the Titans show up again we'll get some days off."

That was nice. They didn't even always cancel class in Amity when the school was directly attacked by ghosts. If they had, Danny probably would have had more of a chance to catch up on his homework. "Where are they, anyway? I heard they've been gone for a while."

Ryan's smile faded. "Yeah, they've been gone all summer. There was another team - Titans East or something - patrolling for a while, but the last time anyone saw them was a few weeks ago. It's been weirdly quiet ever since. We haven't even had any robberies committed by anyone other than normal humans. It's like everything to do with superheroes and villains just stopped." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Sometimes stuff like this happens, but usually not for this long."

"That's-"

"Quiet!" Mr. Tyrann snapped from the front. "There will be no side conversations in my class."

The teens looked at each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes. Ryan snorted and Danny looked away with half a smile. Maybe this wouldn't be awful.

* * *

The smog collected in Danny's throat and lungs with every breath as he headed for the train stop. The pollution had never been this bad back in Amity. He wasn't used to it yet and wasn't sure he ever would be.

He didn't feel like going back to the apartment yet. School hadn't been terrible, but at the same time, it had been all wrong. The layout was weird, the lockers were different sizes, and the class organization was strange. Ryan and the other guys had been nice, but they weren't Sam and Tucker. 

For a minute, Danny thought about calling them - if he was out of class, they definitely would be due to the time change - but he honestly thought that might make it worse. The only thing that would help right now is if he was back in Amity.

It took him a little while, but he was able to find his way back to the cliffs overlooking the bay he'd found before school started. Even with the smog, there was a great view of the bay. With a deep sigh, Danny dropped to the ground, swinging his legs off the side of the cliff. 

Titans Tower stood dark in the sun, apparently still empty. For a minute, Danny let himself think about them. They were teenagers like him, but they actually got to make a difference and be recognized for it. He was sure no one was yelling at them for missing curfew or falling asleep during a test because they were trying to stop a ghost from destroying the town. It would be nice to have that kind of independence.

Then again, if that was _ all _ Danny did, he was sure he'd hate it more than he already hated having to chase ghosts around his other responsibilities. Did the Titans go to school? Did they have friends outside of their teams? Did they get to see family? They had a lot more dangerous enemies than Danny did, and that would put their families and friends in a lot more danger. Would Danny be able to give up seeing Jazz and Mom and his friends to do what the Titans did full time?

No, he couldn't.

He leaned back on his elbows. What would Dad think of California, and Jump City in general? Would he try to explain all the metahuman activity as ghosts? Danny actually didn't know how Dad felt about metahumans. The family had never actually gone to a place where there were many, and, as far as Danny knew, no metahumans lived in Amity Park. Maybe that was a coincidence and maybe it wasn't. Either way, Danny knew that if Dad was here, he'd be his usual boisterous self, probably embarrassing Danny in front of everyone at school.

Danny pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes. He wished Dad was here.

* * *

Danny was sitting at the kitchen table, filling out a dumb 'get to know you' worksheet for English when Mom got home. She hung her keys on a hook by the door and faced Danny with a smile. 

"Hey Danny, how was your day?"

Danny shrugged. "Fine." He watched Mom pull out two glasses and fill them with juice. "How was yours?"

"Oh, it was-" Mom stopped, staring at both cups. She swallowed and took a shaky breath as she put the container back in the fridge. "Do you want some juice, sweetheart?" Her voice sounded odd, strangely stiff.

Danny hesitated, rolling his pencil between his fingers. "...Sure."

She set the glass in front of Danny, not quite looking at him. She sat down across from him and stared at her full cup as she put it down. "You know, you look so much like your dad."

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it, with no idea what to say. 'Thanks'? 'I know, that's why you don't look at me anymore'? 'I'm still not wearing that stupid jumpsuit'?

They sat in silence for a moment until Mom picked up her juice and drank about half of it.

"I had a good day." It took a second for Danny to realize she was responding to his earlier question. "On my lunch break, I went and saw Vlad's house."

"Wait, what?" Danny interrupted, frowning.

"Didn't I tell you—" Mom looked at him, then looked away again, picking up her juice glass with both hands and inspecting it. "Vlad has been thinking about moving here. He's here so often for business, he decided it would be less expensive than constant hotel rooms and eating out."

He just happened to decide right after they - specifically Mom - moved in?  _ Sure _ . "I thought he told you that Jump City was crime-ridden and not suitable for anyone to live in?"

"He said that he'd had the thought before, but hadn't really considered it. When he helped us find a place and move in, he got a new view of the city." Mom finished her drink and stood to put it in the dishwasher. "I was thinking we could go out to eat tonight, to celebrate your first day. What do you think?"

"Sure." Danny shrugged again.

"Did you make any friends?"

"Not really." Mom's smile faded and Danny quickly added, "but I did find some people to eat lunch with that I have some classes with."

Mom beamed. "Oh, that's wonderful honey. I'm going to call Jazz - you'll have to tell her all about your first day."

"Yeah, sure." Like she'd want to hear about it. High school was so boring. 

"Do you want to go see Vlad's house after dinner?" Mom grabbed Danny's empty juice cup and put it in the dishwasher before closing the machine.

Danny made a face behind her back. "No. I, uh, I'm playing Doom tonight with Tucker and Sam. Maybe next time." Or never.

"Alright. Finish up your homework. I'm going to call Jazz, and then we can go to dinner."

"Sure." Danny stared down at the stupid worksheet as Mom headed back down the hall. So Vlad was going to be living in Jump City too. Fantastic. They never should have moved.


End file.
